February 25, 2017 - Ed Sheeran (3)

Now this was an interesting week. We had a mix of good and bad happening, some of which was very beneficial (at least for me) and some that was disappointing. At least our #1 is good, so I'll make do with that. And our Top 20 had quite a bit of good activity, which is always a plus! So without further ado, here are the songs leaving us this week.

• Don't Let Me Down by The Chainsmokers featuring Daya (#39) (spent three weeks at #1)
• Chase You Down by Runaground (#41)
• In The Name Of Love by Martin Garrix and Bebe Rexha (#43)

The Countdown!
Last Week’s #1 Song: Shape Of You by Ed Sheeran
45. You're Not There by Lukas Graham (#42)
44. Greenlight by Pitbull featuring LunchMoney Lewis and Flo Rida (#45)
43. Kids by OneRepublic (#44)
42. Starboy by The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk (#37)
41. Hymn For the Weekend by Coldplay (#38)
40. After the Afterparty by Charli XCX (#15)
39. Love Me Now by John Legend (#29)
38. 24K Magic by Bruno Mars (#27)
37. Make Me (Cry) by Noah Cyrus featuring Labrinth (debut)
36. The Greatest by Sia featuring Kendrick Lamar (#35)
35. This Town by Niall Horan (#36)
34. Heavy by Linkin Park featuring Kiiara (debut)
33. Love On The Brain by Rihanna (#33)
32. Treat You Better by Shawn Mendes (#32)
31. Words by Daya (#25)
30. Guys My Age by Hey Violet (#28)
29. Let Me Love You by DJ Snake with Justin Bieber (#31)
28. Unsteady by X Ambassadors (#24)
27. Scars to Your Beautiful (#30)
26. Don't Wanna Know by Maroon 5 (#17)
25. I Got You by Bebe Rexha (#23)
24. Death of a Bachelor by Panic! At The Disco (#22)
23. Issues by Julia Michaels (#19)
22. That's What I Like by Bruno Mars (#18)
21. Heavydirtysoul by Twenty-one Pilots (#26)
20. It Ain't Me by Kygo featuring Selena Gomez (debut)
19. Say You Won't Let Go by James Arthur (+21)
18. I Feel It Coming by The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk (#14)
17. Play That Song by Train (#20)
16. Just Hold On by Steve Aoki featuring Louis Tomlinson (#13)
15. Cold by Maroon 5 (#34)
14. Paris by The Chainsmokers (#16)
13. Water Under the Bridge by Adele (#7)
12. Chained to the Rhythm by Katy Perry featuring Skip Marley (#21)
11. Million Reasons by Lady Gaga (#10)
10. Side to Side by Ariana Grande featuring Nicki Minaj (#11)
9. Heathens by Twenty-one Pilots (#12) (two weeks at #1)
8. Starving by Hailee Steinfeld and Grey featuring Zedd (#9) (four weeks at #1)
7. All Time Low by Jon Bellion (#5)
6. Mercy by Shawn Mendes (#4)
5. Bad Things by Machine Gun Kelly and Camila Cabello (#8)
4. I Don't Wanna Live Forever by Zayn Malik and Taylor Swift (#6)
3. Closer by The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey (#2) (eight weeks at #1)
2. HandClap by Fitz and The Tantrums (#3)
#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: Stressed Out by Twenty-one Pilots (second of five weeks at #1)
1. Shape Of You by Ed Sheeran (#1) (third week at #1)

Biggest DRRRRRRROP!!! Of The Week: After The Afterparty by Charli XCX (-25) (:D)

Biggest Jump Of The Week: Say You Won't Let Go by James Arthur (+21) (Huh...)

New Entrants
- So, what have we heard from Miley Cyrus since 2015 when she hosted the VMAs? Aside from that terribly received album she dropped right after that? How about the fact that she has a younger sister named Noah? And she is not making a good first impression, as we come to Make Me (Cry), which features Labrinth. Not a lot to say about the lyrical content, it's another one about a toxic relationship and we've seen a lot of those. But this production is just crap and feels scrambled more times than one, and let's not forget that dripping noise that replaces the word "cry". Yeah. Everything about this song just blows. It makes me desperately want to apologize to Words, which as I said before I did get a bit exaggerative to early on. (And now I've pissed off a certain user I won't name.) I could go on, but Twitter user T3chJ3t made a page on his blog where he absolutely obliterated the song. Point is, I really hope it leaves soon.

- I bet a lot of you believed we would never hear from Kiiara again after Gold, did you? Well, she's back, with Linkin Park no less, in Heavy. Now, I'm no stranger to Linkin Park, as I've heard plenty of their songs. But they've since ditched the approach to guitars and being metal...or rock, or...whatever they're classified as, I don't know what you call them! (I think that when Rock Band was a thing, that game classified them as Nu-Metal.) But I'm getting ahead of myself. Point is, they rule with synth now. And the lead singer sounds alright here, but he's best off in their older songs where they were more angsty and extreme. Kiiara, on the other hand, actually sounds quite good, better than in Gold at least. But this is definitely an unusual collaboration, and I'm rather torn on this. It might grow on me fully, but we'll see.

- Finally, debuting right in the Top 20, we have more Selena Gomez. She hasn't had much of substance since the singles from Revival, and then We Don't Talk Anymore with Charlie Puth, the latter which I didn't mind as much as quite a few others. But I digress! Enter It Ain't Me featuring Kygo. So, the guitars in the verses are a bit repetitive, and the choppy stuff in the post-chorus is weird, but Selena is pretty emotive here and the lyrics are about a guy who she's left out on his own because she's had enough of his shenanigans, hence "it ain't me". The chorus can feel like a bit much, but overall, this is a track that I am enjoying.

It Ain't Blurbs
- First, we begin with our exits. To start, Don't Let Me Down ended its long-winded run, and In The Name Of Love I'll definitely miss. I really wish the latter had been more of a hit, and sadly it's gonna miss the Year-End Hot 100 for 2017. Lastly, there's Chase You Down, which while I didn't seriously care for it in the final picture, took a brutal exit after being #15 two weeks ago. Dang!

- Before introducing Greenlight, not only did Spyder have mariachi music playing, but he spoke of how Pitbull was filming a video for one of the songs that'll be on his coming album, and he recalls being stuck in traffic because of it. Well, he's Mr. Worldwide, of course he's gonna have them clustered. Dalé!

- Things have gone on in the bottom 10. On one hand, After The Afterparty took a massive drop right down there. Let's hope this rotten mess of a song leaves soon. Also, this is the second week in a row where the biggest DRRRRRRROP!!! has been a song that was at #15. Looks like we're in for an actually active year for a change!

- On the other hand, two of my favorites, Love Me Now and 24K Magic, took drops into the region. In case you can't tell, I'm not thrilled that North America hasn't been as kind to these two as I feel like they should. The former because we hadn't heard much from John Legend for a while and I wished it had done better. As for the latter? While I know that quite a few here are eagerly awaiting its departure, not to mention Bruno Mars does have a follow-up that's doing pretty good for right now, I'm hoping that this isn't the end for it just yet.

- Very pleasing to see Don't Wanna Know fall out of the Top 20. Let's please get it off the countdown!

- Before introducing I Got You, Spyder mentioned that the artist Bebe Rexha wants to collaborate with most is Kanye West. That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

- Two of our Top 20 entrants from last week clearly didn't last long there. They're right next to each other, one I don't care about and the other I'm disappointed to see leave the region. You can probably guess them.

- Before introducing Heavydirtysoul, Spyder went through the list of winners for the Hits 1 contest to see Twenty-one Pilots, and he mentioned that Charleston, South Carolina (where one of the winners was from), is his favorite state. Huh. Well it's about midway from where I live to Florida, at least to my recollection. That being said, it's nice to see this jump, but can it do something more?

- So last week, Say You Won't Let Go fell into the bottom 10...then, out of absolutely nowhere, it takes the biggest jump of the week right into the Top 20. I'm not necessarily complaining, but it is pretty odd.

- Before introducing Just Hold On, Spyder talked about how Louis Tomlinson's old girlfriend, Briana Jungwirth, the one who gave birth to his son in early 2016, was apparently part of the cause for his recent girlfriend, Danielle Campbell, splitting. I then Googled some stuff and saw some pics of Louis and his son with Briana, so I guess they're living happily ever after? Okay, maybe not "ever after", but more like "for the time being until more drama ensues and she takes Freddie from him again". That aside, for the song's short time being around it's had some alright staying power.

- Of course Chained To The Rhythm was destined to jump after it debuted last week. Too bad the same didn't ring true on Billboard.

- Before introducing Bad Things, Spyder talked about how Camila Cabello was on the cover of some magazine that I didn't catch the name of, where she spoke of asking Taylor Swift for guy advice. Camila, I hate to break it to you, but I don't think you could've picked a worse person to ask about that. Anyway, I'm not thrilled that it kicked Mercy out of the Top 5...

- ...However, I am totally fine with I Don't Wanna Live Forever making an entrance to the highest part of the region. But could it be on the verge of peaking so soon after Fifty Shades Darker hype is gone?

Okay, just as a warning, this next blurb might get rant-ish. Closer fans, please read at your own risk!

- So... Closer has officially broken the record for weeks in the Top 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, passing How Do I Live by LeAnn Rimes and Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars, which had 25. I can't say I'm thrilled about this. And I don't say that entirely because I'm not as huge for the song as most others, I say it because I was never all that much for it and many never liked it at all. What I am saying is that I feel for the people that have loathed Closer since day one and think that every single week it was at #1 was completely undeserved. And now I'm gonna have the Closer fans who still haven't grown back into Uptown Funk saying, "Well, now you know how we felt in 2015 when we were getting Giga Impacted into the ground by Uptown Funk and it was on the verge of breaking the record!" True... To those people, I'll say right now: I hope you got your wish. But you can ask your average YouTube music reviewer, and it's likely that they'll choose the first one. I'm not just saying all of this because Uptown Funk came first, I say it because Closer has been received much worse by a majority of well-known names. Yeah, not all of us are Spectrum Pulse or TheDoubleAgent, and I don't want to piss off the Closer fans any more than I most likely already have, so I'll stop there. At this point, I know it's destined to break the record for weeks in the Top 10. Well, there's not really anything I can do about that, but I'm still not thrilled.

End blurb. Now back to our normal program.

- It would've been pretty ironic to see HandClap hit #1 here the very week that it left the Billboard Hot 100. But I wasn't counting on that, as it's definitely died out elsewhere.

However, because this is so late, I won't be doing Hit-Bound. I will say though, Something Just Like This by The Chainsmokers and Coldplay is some pretty cool stuff.

Top 20 Breakdown:
0 — Shit:
20. Play That Song by Train

1 — Bad:
19. Starving by Hailee Steinfeld and Grey featuring Zedd
18. Bad Things by Machine Gun Kelly and Camila Cabello

2 — Meh:
17. Cold by Maroon 5
16. Closer by The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey

3 — Decent:
None!

4 — Good:
15. Million Reasons by Lady Gaga
14. Mercy by Shawn Mendes

5 — Great:
13. Paris by The Chainsmokers
12. Side To Side by Ariana Grande featuring Nicki Minaj
11. Say You Won't Let Go by James Arthur
10. Heathens by Twenty-one Pilots
9. HandClap by Fitz And The Tantrums
8. All Time Low by Jon Bellion
7. It Ain't Me by Kygo featuring Selena Gomez
6. I Don't Wanna Live Forever by Zayn Malik and Taylor Swift
5. Shape Of You by Ed Sheeran
4. Water Under The Bridge by Adele
3. Just Hold On by Steve Aoki featuring Louis Tomlinson
2. Chained To The Rhythm by Katy Perry
1. I Feel It Coming by The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk (Favorite Song Bonus: +1)

Overall score: 80/100

Countdown Bottom 5
1. Make Me (Cry) by Noah Cyrus featuring Labrinth
2. Don't Wanna Know by Maroon 5
3. After the Afterparty by Charli XCX
4. Play That Song by Train
5. Treat You Better by Shawn Mendes

Countdown Top 5
1. I Feel It Coming by The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk
2. Love Me Now by John Legend
3. 24K Magic by Bruno Mars
4. Heavydirtysoul by Twenty-one Pilots
5. Chained To The Rhythm by Katy Perry featuring Skip Marley

Most Missed Song: Suit And Tie by Justin Timberlake - Seeing him perform at the Oscars actually takes me back to when I watched him first perform this song and how I was caught off-guard big time by his sudden return in 2013.

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: When We Were Young by Adele

Songs That Debuted This Week One Year Ago: While there were no debuts, Victorious by Panic! At The Disco did re-enter, and its second tenure was more than twice as long as its first, including one week at #1.

QOTD: Did you have any favorite moments from the Oscars? Or anything that came off as major disappointments? I didn't watch the whole thing (about 2/3 of the way through, I was tired and just wanted to go to bed), but of what I saw, I liked Justin Timberlake's performance, and I saw that of John Legend too. It was also funny seeing the reactions to the mess-up, too.

Also, one last thing I want to talk about: I don't think I'll be doing a Top 30 or 45 countdown songs of the year, unfortunately, unless you guys really want to see it still. But I do still want to do the Year-End Hot 100 piece, that I WILL get out if it's the last thing I do. That said, thanks for reading, everybody!